Social Media and Political Polarization

 
Chris Bail
Duke University
 
Link to this Presentation: shorturl.at/iqvyH

Source: Finkel, Bail, et al. Science, November 2020

Source: Boxell, Gerntzkow, and Shapiro, NBER Working Paper

Source: Kawecki, Working Paper

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*according to my daughter

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christopher.bail@duke.edu

www.polarizationlab.com

www.chrisbail.net

@chris_bail

Source: Pew Foundation

1) Must be living in the United States

1) Must be living in the United States

2) Must visit Twitter at least three times per week

1) Must be living in the United States

2) Must visit Twitter at least three times per week

3) Must describe themselves as either a Republican or a Democrat

1) “Stricter environmental laws and regulations cost too many jobs and hurt the economy.”

2) “Government regulation of business is necessary to protect the public interest.”

3) “Poor people today have it easy because they can get government benefits without doing anything in return.”

4) “Immigrants today strengthen our country because of their hard work and talents.”

5) “Government is almost always wasteful and inefficient.”

6) “The best way to ensure peace is through military strength.”

7) “Racial discrimination is the main reason why many black people can't get ahead these days.”

8) “The government today can't afford to do much more to help the needy.”

9) “Business corporations make too much profit.”

10) “Homosexuality should be accepted by society.”

1) Frequency of Twitter use

2) Strength of partisanship

3) Interest in current events

4) Ideological homophily (online)

5) Ideological homophily (offline)

6) Demographics/SES (age, gender, income, education, region)

7) Many others…

See my textnets package

See my textnets package